Country, religion, family, ideas of civilization, all the sentimental and historical forces that stood between cosmic infinity and the individual, providing some notion of a place within the whole, have been rationalized and have lost their compelling force. America is experienced not as a common project but as a framework within which people are only individuals…
Substitute "the church" for "America" and we can begin to see, as can be seen so often on so many fronts, the influence of the secular culture on the church. In countless segments of the Evangelical church, fellowship with others has become an option, a personally beneficial but not altogether essential activity. The church is reducible in many quarters to an organization at best, a building on a lot at worst – "a framework in which people are only individuals." Such was my own experience in the church for many years.
This situation is tragic not only because I lose the personal benefit of fellowship with others, but because others are counting on my fellowship for their benefit. There is a power and mutual blessing in fellowship that cannot be had any other way. Consider the following account from Acts 14: "Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. However, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city" (v. 19-20). In his utter helplessness, Paul found strength from brethren who were willing to stoop down and minister to him. This is the same Paul who urged the church to "rejoice always in the Lord," to "pray without ceasing," and to "meditate on the Scriptures" – yet he found himself in a place where praise, prayer and knowledge of the Word did not rescue him. His fellow disciples rescued him.
I believe these disciples were able to minister to Paul because they knew Paul personally. They were his friends. They knew he wasn't suffering because he was lazy or unspiritual or unbelieving, but largely because of his courageous and sacrificial ministry. They also loved him. Love for our brethren is, of course, a tell-tale indicator of love for our God. "By this all will know that you are My disciples," said Jesus, "if you have love for one another." Unfortunately that is a big if, one which carries some serious spiritual implications. As John declares, "We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren," and then asks: "But whoever...sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?" (1 John 3:16-17).
Paul suggests the same basic idea when he says to the highly divisive, individualistic Corinthians, "We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open…. Now in return you also be open" (2 Cor. 6:11, 13). The power of fellowship, the kind that moves beyond routine church attendance and into honest, loving, supportive relationships with one another, thus begins with the opening of the heart.
